


I'll See You Soon, Johnny Boy

by theRadioStarr



Series: Tumblr Drabbles and One-Shots [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Mass Effect
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, School, Terrorism, Tumblr, Tumblr Prompt, from batarians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2015-12-02
Packaged: 2018-05-04 15:09:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5338637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theRadioStarr/pseuds/theRadioStarr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Destroy Ending history for Jack 'Trevelyan', prompted by leaf-ear on Tumblr: “Is that a threat or a warning?“ “Does it matter?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll See You Soon, Johnny Boy

Jack allowed herself a small smile as she ate her lunch with her students. 

Grissom Academy had been fixed up, finally upgraded and renovated after the attack by Cerberus during the Reaper war almost four years ago. The Academy was full to bursting, and a large, formal photo of John Shepard hung on the wall of one of the balconies. 

The same balcony Jack had vaulted over when he showed up here all those years ago. 

She sighed, the smile sliding off her face as she stared into his painted blue eyes, too cold and stern to be his. She wondered if anyone had actually seen them the way she had, when he tied her to the bedframe and stripped her down just so he could trace the lines of her tattoos with his gaze, or when she caught him staring at her from a cautious distance with love in his eyes. 

No, those were the eyes of John. The picture showed the eyes of Commander Shepard, N7 graduate and first human SPECTRE, defeater of the Reapers. The eyes of a hardened soldier and a ruthlessly efficient and inspiring leader. 

She would see neither set of eyes in person ever again. 

“Hey, old lady!” The voice cut across her, and her concentration snapped. She turned to look at the young man who had called out to her. All of her students were watching. “Oh, good, you zoned out there. Time for a nap, grandma?”

Jack smirked. He was so much like his big sister. “Shut up and drink your juice, Rodriguez,” she shot back, shaking her head. 

The table laughed at him, but he sucked his straw until the volume of the last drops hissing across the bottom end became unbearable. “Alright, alright!” Jack took a moment to take stock of her students, and noticed lots of empty plates and trashed trays. 

“Everyone done eating?” A chorus of  _yeahs_  and slow nods came from her students. “Alright, let’s get this stuff put away -  _stop trying to get Orina to drink whatever that is -_ and go back-”

“ _Samael Shepard, please report to the security office. Samael Shepard, to the security office, please.”_

Jack froze. 

_Shit. Fuck. **Shit.**  _“Back to the classroom. Now.” 

“But our trays…” one of the students started to ask, but Jack shook her head, tight little movements in quick succession. 

That PA call had been the Academy’s private code for an outside attack. 

_No Commander John Shepard to save the day this time. It’s just you, Jack. “_ Leave them. Back to the classroom, lets  _go.”_

Her students must have seen the change in her, because they fell silent and immediately rose, waiting for her to lead them. She looked quickly down the hallways to see if anything out of the ordinary was in the immediate vicinity, and when she concluded that they would be relatively safe for the moment, she led them up the stairs and down the hall to their class. 

_Small windows, two floors above ground. Lots of heavy desks for cover. One doorway to enter by. if we can make it there, it’ll be good ground._

She stopped and pressed herself to the wall around the corner from her classroom, and peeked around the corner. She was allowed one small firearm for emergency purposes, thanks to her Alliance backing, and she pulled it from her hip, clipping in a heat sink. Her students flattened against the walls when they saw it. 

“Hall’s clear,” she hissed. “Get into the classroom, get behind cover, and stay quiet. I’ll explain when we’re all in a better position to keep our asses attached.” 

Her students nodded at her confidently, all of them glowing blue as they rounded the corner in a practiced, almost military fashion and ducked into the classroom. When the last one had gone by and made it in safely, Jack followed. 

Jack closed the door behind her, and breathed a heavy sigh. “Okay, kids, I don’t have much time to explain.” She saw a bunch of heads pop up from behind desks, eyes proud and defiant, and she couldn’t help but smile. “That PA announcement was a code alerting the staff to a terrorist attack.”

“I thought Cerberus were done for?”

Jack laughed; she couldn’t help it. “Cerberus aren’t the only terrorists in the galaxy, Arturo.”

“Batarians?”

“Most likely,” Jack agreed. “Keep your barriers up, and don’t forget what we went over last week - it could save your life. I am not going to let  _anything_  happen to  _any_  of you, do you hear me? And don’t  _you_  let anything happen to each other, either,  _do you hear me?_ ”

Fervent nods. 

“Good.” Jack took another sigh, trying to quell the pit of doom that had settled in her stomach. “Everything’s going to be fi-”

The door beeped behind her, the red circle showing the lock whirling loudly as someone started to hack in from the other side. 

“Subject Zero!”

_What the actual fuck?_ Jack turned around and faced the door, her Locust - the last artifact of the late Commander Shepard that she owned - held steady out in front of her. 

The door flipped to green, and slid open with a  _hiss_. 

“Balak,” Jack spit. 

“Jack,” the Batarian spat right back. He was flanked by another half a dozen of his men, all armed to the teeth. “I had heard you were here.”

“What the fuck do you even  _want?”_ Jack asked. “Shepard’s been dead since the end of the war, I can’t fucking give you anything. Not that I ever  _would.”_

“Shepard’s death was an unfortunate incident, if only because Balak was not the one to bring it upon him. What we  _want_ is the next best thing.”

Jack snorted in disbelief. “Me? Come on, I fucking good, but I’m not  _that_  fucking good.” 

“No. You are not Commander Shepard. But you were his pet, were you not?”

“Jack isn’t anyone’s pet, Commander Shepard or no!” came a defiant shout from behind her. 

“Not  _now,_ Rodriguez!” Jack shouted over her shoulder, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “So, what? Come to kill me instead? You know I won’t let that shit stand.”

She saw Balak’s dark eyes flick around the room, and he grinned, his teeth bared to her. “Perhaps not. But perhaps you can be… persuaded.” 

Jack’s vision went blue as her implants reacted to the violent rage that coursed through her. She dropped the Locust to her side and advanced on the Batarian. His men all backed away, but Balak just raised his shotgun to his shoulder. 

Jack didn’t stop walking until her sternum was pressed against the end of the barrel. 

“ _No one_  fucks with my kids.” 

Balak laughed at her, the sound a guttural snarl. “Is that a threat, or a warning?”

_What a fucking idiot._ “Does it fucking  _matter?”_

Balak took a moment to consider, and then he squeezed the trigger.

Jack’s barrier exploded, taking the brunt of the impact of the shot, throwing the Batarians against the walls with sickening cracks and sending Jack flying backwards over a few sets of desks. White hot pain lanced through her chest, and everything was already blurry, the room spinning -  _God, I’m going to die here, aren’t I?_

A roar sounded among her students, and the room flashed blue with Warps and Reaves and Shockwaves. She closed her eyes and just focused on trying to catch her breath so she could get up and protect them.  _I promised them, promised I would keep them safe…_

_“_ Jack? Jack!” The room was quiet except for the quiet murmurings and worried shouts from her students. “Someone get me some medi-gel!” _  
_

Jack shook her head. She wasn’t going to make it out of this one. 

“Are they-” she coughed, oh God, the  _pain_ , “are they dead?”

Rodriguez was leaning over her, her other students gathered around. “You wouldn’t even recognize them.”

“Good. Proud-” another cough. “Proud of you all.”

“ _Jack?!”_

Jack just smiled, the room going out of focus, and she started to relax. She was tired of fighting, tired of going about her day-to-day as if nothing was wrong, when the pain of losing the one man she had ever loved still made her cry herself to sleep every night. 

_I’ll see you soon, Johnny Boy._

Jack closed her eyes, and didn’t open them again. 

 


End file.
